1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image data transmission apparatus, a transmission method, and an image processing system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, various techniques related to high-speed data transmission (transfer) have been developed. For example, in order to transfer image data of an image to be printed to a printer capable of performing high-speed printing from a print server at a sufficient speed, an interface for transferring control information such as specification of a sheet type and an interface for transferring print image data are separated and the interface for transferring the data is configured by a high-speed serial bus.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2012-40867 further discloses a technique enabling high-speed data transfer by providing data transfer controllers and data lines corresponding to respective colors of the image data.
When data is transferred using the high-speed serial bus as in the above-mentioned conventional technique, an insufficient transfer band in a certain configuration is addressed by increasing the number of lanes of the bus that is used for the data transfer, thereby ensuring a sufficient transfer band. When data having a plurality of planes (it is assumed that data for one color corresponds to one plane), such as image data, is tried to be transferred, conventionally, the data is transferred using the necessary number of lanes for each plane.
For example, even when a transfer band necessary for transferring image data of one plane at a speed appropriate for a print speed is slightly larger than a transfer band provided by one lane, two lanes of the bus are used per plane in order to provide a sufficient transfer speed. The conventional system therefore needs more lanes for the bus relative to the transfer band required as a whole in some cases, resulting in a problem of increased cost including the cost of cables.
The above-described problem can occur in the same manner when data having a plurality of planes is tried to be transmitted in transmission (transfer) of data other than the image data or data transmission between apparatuses other than the printer and the print server.